Market appearance of vertical barbecue grills has been scarce but many prior patents have issued directed to such devices. Some of the prior devices are even portable, collapsible, and even serve as space heaters. Prior patents include:
Pat. No. Inventor 5,333,540 Mazzocchi 5,431,093 Dodgen 3,343,527 Manteris 3,230,948 Schmitt 4,120,237 Mecherlen 3,999,472 Einto 3,783,855 Newinger 3,611,912 Choc 3,550,525 Rabello 3,175,549 Bergsten 3,572,313 Ciancaglini 2,379,239 Krebs 2,154,165 Huntington D155,631 Roedter D262,348 Levy D285,161 Cairns 3,224,357 Rubens 2,838,991 Kleinmann et al. D134,248 Reichart D329,960 Reynolds 5,255,664 Gurliacci D376,722 Oftedal et al. D286,256 Jung D232,510 Liakouras, et al. D214,655 Miles 5,823,174 Andress 3,581,654 Tescula 3,604,408 Tescula 3,140,651 Barnett 2,734,499 Lombardi 3,742,838 Luschen et al. 3,832,989 Belford 4,338,912 Gaskins 4,730,597 Hottenroth et al. 5,499,574 Esposito 5,536,518 Rummel 3,182,585 Recsch et al. 3,085,562 Persinger et al.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,333,540 to Mazzochi is particularly relevant in disclosing a collapsible, consumer-oriented portable vertical barbecue grill but lacks, among other things, an inclined firebox. Inclination advantageously provides direct and indirect heating at the same time. U.S. Pat. No. 3,999,472 to Einto discloses a "convertible" grill having a firebox alterable between vertical and horizontal positions. U.S. Pat. No. 3,783,855 shows a combination space heater and grilling device having a pivoting firebox and ash receiving tray assembly where space heating occurs in the vertical position and grilling occurs in a horizontal position. U.S. Pat. No. 5,431,093 to Dodgen shows an inclined hearth located deep within a fire chamber of a barbecue grill but without horizontally disposed, accessible cooking grids across the face thereof. U.S. Pat. No. 3,343,527 to Manteris shows a vertical hearth grill including a grease trap and a barrier belt positioned at a cooking grid level to assist in air circulation. Some prior grills provide double hearths on opposed sides of a grid for more even cooking, but to attain portability and compactness a single hearth is generally acceptable.
In light of the design, construction, and limitations of these and perhaps other prior vertical grilling devices, problems confronted and/or addressed by the present invention include but are not limited to achieving simultaneously multi-temperature and multi-mode cooking (direct and indirect heating), simultaneous underside and laterally cooking, thermal insulation from extreme firebox heat, ash containment and removal for easy clean-up, channeling and trapping grease drippings, strength and rigidity of deployed grill assembly, convertibility to an oven, portability and transportability of a collapsed grill, stability of a grill assembly when fully deployed, and/or containment of grill parts for transport and storage.
In view of the above-stated problems, it is an objective of the present invention to provide improved grilling, broiling and searing by providing a combination of direct and indirect heating of foodstuffs by utilizing an inclined firebox.
It is also a general objective of the present invention to provide a method of changeably applying direct and/or indirect heating during cooking, grilling, broiling, or barbecuing of foodstuffs on horizontal grids positioned across the face of an inclined firebox.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for applying underside and lateral heat for cooking foods.
It is a yet an additional objective of the present invention to augment thermal insulation of an external housing of a vertical barbecue grill by providing an arrangement to displace the fire chamber from rear and vertical walls of the grill assembly and by spacing hot coals in a basket within the firebox.
It is yet another objective of the invention to provide, at least for briquette-burning grills, a firebox that avoids ash avalanche over cooking foods and for providing an ash reservoir within a firebox that may be removed without disturbing other parts of the grill.
It is yet another objective of the present invention to provide a vertical barbecue grill construction enabling convertibility to an oven for baking, roasting, grilling, etc.
It is yet a further objective of the present invention to provide a deployable barbecue grill having a rigid and stable structure in a fully deployed and extended mode.
It is yet an additional objective of the present invention to provide a barbecue grill that is stable against backward tipping due a rearward displacement of the center of gravity when deployed and loaded with charcoal.
It is yet a further objective of the present invention to provide a self-contained vertical barbecue grill assembly that is collapsible for convenient transport, storage, and shipping.
Other objectives will become readily apparent from the following description.